Nobody says this, but by now this is absolutely obvious: Letting the US Companies to move blue collar jobs abroad was a mistake.
Capitalism - the word comes from capital. Capital comes from savings. Savings come from over-production (i.e. exports) and NOT from over-consumption on credit (i.e. imports).
"When I worked in Zurich a colleague once described it succinctly: in England (and, by extension, the US, Canada and Australia) you can do whatever you want except for those things that are banned. On the mainland (of Europe) you can't do anything unless it's specifically allowed."
As an European I tend to disagree. You confused 'mainland Europe" with German-speaking parts of Europe (Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway). Trust me you will feel even more free than in the UK when living in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece... and then once you hit Eastern Europe - Poland, Slovakia, Croatia, etc. - you can be pretty safe by actually doing everything OPPOSITE to what the law, authorities, etc. tell you to do. Don't confuse Germany with whole Europe. I find it personally offensive. It's like saying that US is like Mexico just because you lived in certain parts of LA.
Economists who do tell that too much finance ALWAYS led to social and economic collapse: Jensen, Faber, Rogers, Schiff... and read some history too before you accuse someone of not relying on empirical evidence.
FIRE - Finance, Insurance, Real-Estate Economy - based on fake (paper) money, fake (virtual) instruments and debt won't hold for too much longer against a real economy based on production (China). Just wait for the day when Chinese tie their Yuan to gold/silver/oil/whatever. FIRE economies repeated through-out the History. They always failed. You can't build on paper foundation (read: on promises). You need to have REAL assets to back up your economy.
If you bought gold instead of stocks is 1929, you'd still be ahead of the game now in 2011. Remembering that gold is just another currency - it just keeps pace with inflation and there's no return on it long time - makes one wonder why to 'invest' at all. Just save the money. In the right currency, that is. Like gold.
Oil has had a constant price in gold and silver since 50s. So, it's not oil getting expensive, but your gauge of expensiveness (dollar) getting very cheap. Ergo, energy prices will go dramatically up == Dollar will go dramatically down. Next place to see suburbia growing is China, not US.
It is illegal under the US law for an employee to pay money to his Employer. As this could be a backdoor for slavery and actually is regulated by anti-slavery laws in the US. I know this from my attorney when I asked if I should be worried about $5k I was supposed to pay back to my company as I quit before 12 months project ended. I quit, nothing happened. It was over 5 years ago and this company still exists and does business in Northern Virginia area and I know that they still require their prospect employees to sign this. Signature on this has no legal value whatsoever.
You chase returns when you know that you can pocket if market goes up, or get a bail-out when it goes down. No need to write a whole article about it. When the Government took fear from the markets by guaranteeing all the bets, the only thing left was greed. The crisis is about the market trying to go back to equilibrium.
But the Government won't let it. It wants to guarantee even more bad debts now - mortgages, credit card debt, insurance losses, bank deposits, etc, etc. This way it leaves even more greed and kills any fear on the markets.
The indirect consequence of this policy will be a currency crisis of the USD. Simply, nobody in their right mind will believe that bailing out the whole industries by printing money and issuing debt won't cause high levels of inflation.
You do not understand Eastern Europeans. I'm one and I'm telling you that we're not Asians and it has nothing to do with communal harmony and everything to do with avoiding responsibility. Common thread from communistic time (party apartchiks did exactly that, so nobody could be blamed for disasetrious results of their decisions). You see, that's why socialists love comittees.
So, it doesn't bother you as an Academic to have students at an University who do NOT want to learn... ?
That's the problem with the US - everybody cares about the money and money only.
That's why the system funded by taxes seems better - academics are there to teach people who want to learn. Doctors are there to provide health care. Doesn't this just sound more... hmmm... normal for the lack of a better word?
Actually, it's not that simple. Greek Government hired Goldman Sachs to run their bond operations and GS ran amok with that. So, now IMF which is in bed with GS, advised Greek Gov what to do and they're screwed even more. What a surprise!
I think you have a reading problem. Yes, the unemployment did hit 70% in some places this is correct according to the article. They even give the name of the place and a short interview with someone living there. Secondly, GDP dropping 1.5% in a quarter is horrible. Their purchasing power is like in 1984. In other words last 25 years of their economic development has just been erased in a year. Nothing shoddy about this statistical fact. And in the end Greece listened to Goldman Sachs when its employees advised Greek Government how to create all these shady statistics. On top of that GS recommended and performed very risky operations with Greek bonds that just went very bad and that's why Greek bond market blew-up taking with it the whole economy. The difference is that the Greece is actually suing GS in an International Court instead of bailing them out and the Greek people are rightfully angry not letting Government waste their money. Now compare this to some other people who will complain about Greek, but then borrow more money from China to bail-out GS and their friends who screwed you ignorant in the first place.
You're as socialist as EU, maybe even more. The only difference is that you donate money to failed corporations instead your families. That's why Greeks have a few thousand years of history and you look like you'll be done after another few peasants from a desert will decide to blew up a building or two.
"Suppose that a company hires a low-skill not-very-alert office worker for $10/hour. This person accepts an email invitation to follow a hyperlink. One click later and the company’s network is infected with a virus. Best case: IT department spends $50,000 cleaning up; worst case: customer lists, customer credit cards, and other private data are compromised, costing millions of dollars."
Yep, and the dumb idiot running the Company (CEO) will still insist on paying 10usd/hr. Who is here to blame? Being cheap just means that you will pay twice as much in the long run (at least twice that is...)
Capitalism - the word comes from capital. Capital comes from savings. Savings come from over-production (i.e. exports) and NOT from over-consumption on credit (i.e. imports).